The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-01-20
THE PLACE OF TORMENT.
A Powerful Sermon by Father MCCARTHY
at the Cathedral.
Mems and Co,l,i;er. Jan. 6.

Ne,ps and Courier, Jan. 6.
The Rev. Father Mccarthy, Of the
Jesuit Mission, preached at the Cathe-
dral Chapel last night to an immense
congregation. Every aeat was occupied,
and several of those who came in after
the services had commenced were obliged
to stand up. Father Mccarthy is re-
markably eloquent speaker, a phlloso'
pher and a forcible reasoner. His
discourse last night was on the subject of
"Hell." He spoke for about an hour,
during which time be held the interested
attention of the entire congregation.
"rhus far" said he, eve have striven to
arrive at knowledge of the intrinsic
malice of sin by examining it in itself,
and gathering it from its consequences
to the angels, to our first parents in the
earthly paradise and in the earth sim
cursed. We have seen what heritage
of woe they, in consequence, bequeathed
to us and to their latest posterity how
it arms Heaven and earth, the elements,
his fellow.men against him; how it
makes him the enemy Of God, and dread
full to say, makes his enemy the God who
made, preserves and died for love OF him.
owe now come to deepen our knoWl'
edge of sins malice by considering the
hell created by God for the punishment
of grievous sin unrepented of before
death. Some even calling themselves
Christians, and holding the Bible to be
the rule of faith, nay the sole rule OF
faith, have come to doubt the existence
of q place of torment in the after life, or,
at least, to. deny that the torments therein
to be suffered will be of eternal duration.
Some, too, who are not Christians
assume, for the sake of argument, that
the God of Christianity is possessed OF
the attributes of justice and mercy, and
thence infer the non existence of bells
which they claim to be inconsistent with
these attributes. Both these classes
contend that it would be contrary to JUS
tice for God to punish everlasting Sin
committed in moment, on account OF
the disproportion so evident between the
offence and its punishment. They forget
that even human legislation inaicts life
long punishment, and even takes human
life for crime committed in few short
moments against a fellow creature, and
does not deem the penalty too great.
"In the second place they lose sight OF
the Infinite wickedness Of mortal sin,
an in6niteness not derived from finite
man who sins, but from the infinite
majesty of the God against whom he
sins; forget how abyss calls forth unto
abyss-the abyss of mans nothiogness
and the deeper abyss of his sinfulness,
unto the abyss of Gods greatness and
goodness. Since man, being finite, is
is incapable OF enduring a punishment
infinite in its intensity, that it may not
be altogether inadequate it must needs be
indefinite in its duration; nay, from this
argument it will appear that the sinner,
suffering eternally in hell, is unable to
endure a pain equal to his demerit and
sufficient to pay forfeit equal to the
demands of Divine justice.
GAS to the mercy of God, which be.
longs to God equally with His justice, it
not only does not exclude the existence
of hell but demands it. God wishes
mans love. Son, give Me thy heart ,
He says. He calls Himself God jeal'
Gus OF. mans love, and in order to keep
man loyal to His love deems it necessary
to employ not only the Establishments of
fatherly love, but the severity of a judges
threats.
"Among these menaces none is so ter
rible as that of endless. exclusion from
His presence and endless suffering in the
exile of hell. Many WHO would not
remain bound to their loyalty to God by
the golden chains of love are held cap
tive to it by the iron chains of His holy
fear. Let us illustrate this point. A
pseudo. .pbilanthropic sentiment has iu
our own time called for, and in some
places obtained, the abolition of capital
punishment. The result was the speedy
and immense increase of murder, and the
same who petitioned for the doing away
with the death penalty we're forced to
ask for its re enactment, as necessary for
the welfare of society, and even in the
interests of those whom nothing, but the,
fear of forfeiting their own life could
deter from the taking of the life of their
fellow.men. If, therefore, very many are
not hindered from the commission of
mortal sin and the loss of Gods friend.
ship by the fear of hell, in which they
firmly believe, how many would be held
to it were this most ethcacious deterrent
taken away.
Now, for the benefit of those who &C.
cept the Scripture as the inspired word
of God, it will suffice to recall to their
minds that in the Holy Writ hell is
spoken of as place of torments, as a
darksome place where there is no order,
but where everlasting horror dwells;
that it is a lake burning with fire and
birthstone; the hell of fire, where the
worm dieth not, &C., &C., sc. The pains
of hell are of two kinds: The pain Of
sense and the pain of loss. Some nom
Catholics have difficulty in believing in
the existence of the former, forgetting
that it is but reasonable that the body
which shares with the soul sinful pleas
ure should also share with it the penalty
thereof; and that as the glori6ed body
of the just made perfect receives its hap
piness from the overflow of that with
which the soul is flooded in gazing estat.